Bonkers Blog May 2011

I have a bit of a backlog of things submitted by contributors so I am going to
make a quick summary of a few of them to try to get myself up to date.

James Brokenshire MP

The
Conservative Home blog
is telling us that James, MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup is no longer the junior minister for anti-social
behaviour, he has moved on to Under Secretary for security. So I suppose that
means all hope of seeing him take action against the anti-social activities of
bent councils has gone for ever; not that he was ever particularly
interested in such issues and keeping his nose clean seems to have paid off.
As
I said before, maybe he has his eye on the Home Secretary’s job. Now he has
security in his portfolio maybe he will take an interest in the number of
policemen and bouncers Bexley council thinks appropriate to guard their empire
from marauding pensioners. Fat chance.

The Notomob

Notomob is being stonewalled by Bexley council with its
VCA enquiries.. Councillor
Craske has gone to ground - no surprise there - and so has his Parking Manager,
Greg Tippett. Apparently they have no answers. My suspicion is that Bexley council will
ask the Certification Authority to issue a backdated certificate for its gestapo
wagons and declare all
is well. Just imagine it if you failed to tax or insure your car for a couple of
years and when you are found out said "Sorry, Ill pay up now". It wouldn’t work
for you and it shouldn’t work for them.

NSL managers are no better, in a nutshell they are politely saying “No comment”.
With a million pound a year contract (Source : Bexley council’s website) to
protect, maybe admitting nothing is to be expected.

Cabinet jobs

Olly Cromwell, he of the linguistically colourful
You’ve Been Cromwelled blog, keeps getting leaks, apparently from council
sources with some indications they are from councillor Philip Read. Well
he is
stupid enough. His anonymous source told Olly a few weeks ago that the deputy
council leader, Simon Windle, had resigned that position and now Olly’s source
is telling him that councillor Campbell has taken on that role. Seems a shame,
Simon comes across as almost decent by Bexley council standards but Campbell is a loud
bruiser with no scruples. Should make an interesting partnership with that other
loud bruiser without scruples, Teresa O’Neill. I suppose the truth will come out at the next
council meeting on the 18th.

General Purposes Sub-Committee - 10th May 2011

You
always have to be suspicious when a council meeting is
held at ten in the morning, it may mean they dont want anybody to be there to
listen; a view reinforced when there are only four agendas available for members
of the public to pick up. I was unable to nip along to that meeting to keep
myself abreast of any interesting developments councillor Cheryl Bacon, along with fellow members Peter Catterall and Alan Deadman,
might be prepared to put on public view.

The Committee was considering a case put forward by a very large number of
residents from the Stansted Crescent and Carisbrooke Avenue area area of Albany
Park that the wooded open space shown in the photograph should be registered as a village green under
the Commons Registration Act of 2006. Many residents had used the space as a
playground, a picnic area and a short cut for 30 and some more than 50 years and
considered that they had established rights to its use.

Nothing too controversial there then you might think, but that is because no one
has told you that Bexley council sold the land to the London and Quadrant
Housing Association nearly 15 years ago and no one had told the local residents
either. The land carried on being used and maintained in the same old way as if
nothing had changed. Council deception or council boob? Cheryl and her two
pals may know but I doubt we ever will. They decided it would be best for them if
they continued their navel gazing in private. Not exactly upfront with democracy
are they?

If I get to hear the result of the Committee’s deliberations I’ll let you know.
Maybe one of the local residents will spill some beans? Maybe the answer is 42.

Councillor Sawyer

Remember the not very well known
marriage
between councillor Sawyer and Priti Patel, MP for Witham? Sawyer’s address
was sought from the council and after they displayed some reluctance a request
for a copy of the councillor’s electoral nomination form was submitted under
Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. This notice is much the same as what
is pinned up in polling stations so it’s not exactly a state secret. It’s a
month since that request went in and photocopying a sheet of paper back and
front is not something that should take more than a day or two. There is no sign
of the papers for the other councillors which were requested later
so that
all councillor addresses can be published here the moment Bexley council puts residents
addresses on theirs. It looks like Bexley council is dragging its feet once more
thinking yet again there is one rule for them and another for those who are
fool enough to vote them in.

Mayor Val Clark

The complaints about the mayor for
cutting public question time from eleven to 15 minutes at the meeting on 3rd
March never has been heard by Bexley’s standards board. It should have been heard on 14th April but the
meeting was
mysteriously postponed. Since then nada! The problem is of course that its
an open and shut case. The mayor is guilty and she is up against video evidence.
That is why all recording is now banned and despite what this week’s Bexley Times reports, permission to film cannot be obtained, the mayor
has spoken. The longer this drags on the more dishonest Bexley council looks,
they should just come clean, admonish the mayor for trashing her beloved
Standing Orders and hope the next mayor is not so incompetent. On the other hand
I suppose they think any reputation they might have had is shot to pieces anyway and
putting just one wrong right will not make any difference; yeah, I suppose they
have a point there.